Switch



Nov. 9,1937., J, M GLEASON 2,098,644

SWITCH Filed Aug. l5, 1954 Jam/@aM @Zeasom l Patented Nov. 9, 1.937l

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFCE SWITCH Application August 15, 1934, SerialNo. 739,863

7 Claims.

'AI'his invention pertains to electrical switches capable of varioususes, but especially valuable when forming part of burglar alarm systemsfor automotive vehicles.

In order to illustrate the invention, it is herein shown and vdescribedas forming part of an alarm system for automobiles.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide a switch which can berotated into, or out of, circuit closing position by movements of theoperating key, or other suitable operating mechanism, in a mannersimilar to the rotative movements of a combination lock so that when akey is used as the operating member, not only is the possession oftheright key necessary, but the operator must also know what combination ofrotative movements are required to render the switch operative orinoperative.

Another object of the invention is to provide an electrical switch whichmay be rotated selectively either to circuit closed or circuit openposition only in a predetermined manner, the mechanism being concealedfrom View and a knowledge of the necessary movements being aprerequisite to the accomplishment of the desired result.

Other objects and advantages of the invention, particularly inconnection with the use of the invention in an automotive burglar alarmsystem will be described hereinafter, or will become apparent from aperusal of the following specilications.

In the drawing:

Fig. l shows a side elevation of an automobile, indicatingdiagrammatically the position of this system as installed in anautomobile,

Fig. 2 is a diagram of the circuit employed in my invention and showingthe controlling or setting device by a plan view thereof,

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the control device,

Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4--4 of Fig. 3,

Fig. 5 is a plan view of the setting device showing the circuit open toprevent the giving of an alarm should any of the alarm switchesthereafter be opened,

Fig. 6 is a plan view of the setting device showing one of the steps inoperating the same,

Fig. 7 is a plan View of the setting device showing one phase in theoperation thereof, and

Fig. 8 is a side elevation showing the numbered combination dial.

This invention aims, when utilized to its best advantage, to place analarm switch on both doors of the hood, on every car door, and, ifnecessary, every window and upon such accessories as the spare tireholder, so arranged that when through tampering by some unauthorizedperson, any of these alarm switches become closed a gong, horn or othersound producing mechanism will be sounded.

The system is electrical and preferably employs for its operation thebattery l of the automobile, to which is connected any sound producingdevice f suchas a gong 2, aself-locking relay 3, a temperaturecontrolled circuit breaker 4, variable resistance 5, a plurality ofalarm switches 6 and a master switch l'. As will be explained in greaterdetail hereinafter, the master switch 'l ordinarily will be arranged sothat the electrical circuit irom ground through it, as shown in Fig. 2,will always be maintained. Should a door, hood or spare tire holder beopened, a spring pressed button 8 on such a connected switch will beallowed to spring outwardly and will close the switch 6. These switchesare well known in the art and may be purchased readily in the openmarket, being commonly used when the plunger or button thereof is out orin to close or open circuits. 'Ihe details of such switches therefore donot form a part of this invention; It is suiiicient that the switch beconstructed to close a circuit through itself when a door or otherdevice is opened and that the closing of the door will open the circuit.When a circuit is closed through one of the alarm switches, ground willthen be established through the closed switch through the coil of therelay 3 through the circuit breaker 4, resistance 5, thence to battery.

When the relay is energized the armature 9 will move upwardly, `as showninFig. 2, to close the circuit through contacts Il and I2 which Willthereupcn establish a circuit through the coil of the relay directlyfrom battery through the control switch 7 to ground', thus locking therelay until the switch 'l is opened, subject, however, to the action ofthe circuit breaker l. In order that the alarm may not continue to sounduntil the battery is exhausted, a circuitbreaker 4, so indicateddiagrammatically, and of any suitable construction lmay bev employed.Preferably this breaker will besuch that it may be set to open thecircuit only after the current has been passing through its coil aperiod of time such as ten or fteen minutes. This would be deemed to beample time for giving a warning. Cooling of the 'coil of the circuitbreaker would restore ringing of the gong again should a circuit toground be closed or become closed through any of the alarm switches 6.

It is contemplated that the control or setting device 'l be located andmounted upon some stan tionary and iixed part of the frame, for example,between the front door and the hood. This control device may be operatedsimply by a knob but preferably should be operated only upon theinsertion of the key. The type of lock and key employed will preferablybe similar to that at present employed in automobiles, namely, acylinder lock whose key can be withdrawn only inV insulating materialsuch as insulating iiber, forV example. By means of the key the operatormay rotate the shaft and the insulating finger without limit in eitherdirection but must return it when withdrawing the key to the angularposition shown in Fig. 3. Connected with the lead I6 of the circuitleading to ground is a resilient contact member Il which has formedpreferably integrally therewith Va curved member I8 shaped substantiallyas shown in the drawing. Connected with the lead I9 of the system is aspring contact member 2|, having formed integrally therewith,preferably, a curved member 22. As shown in Figs. 3 and 6, the tip ofthe outer curved member 22 does not extend as far around in a circle asdoes the tip of the inner member I8. The insulating nger if rotated bythe key from the position shown in Fig. 7 in a clockwise direction, asviewed in Fig. 3, will engage a downwardly extending tip 23 and ride upupon the same, thereby passing on to the outer surface 24 of the contactmember 2 I. It will then follow the outer surface of the curved member22. If the nger be continuously rotated in the same direction it willfall off the end of the member 22, thence olf the end of the member I8and will repeat the cycle.

But should the owner of the car desire to render the system inoperativeso that the doors and hood may be freely opened and closed withoutgiving alarm, he will rotate the insulating finger I5 in thecounterclockwise direction above described, Viewing Fig. 3, until thenger just barely rides oil the end of the member 22. The member 22,being somewhat under compression, will be released and will springoutwardly. The operator may then reverse the rotation, that is, rotatethe finger clockwise causing it to pass between the curved contactmembers. He will then continue to rotate it until he has it back to theposition shown in Fig. 5. At this point it will be observed that theinsulating finger insulates the members Il and 2! thus opening thecircuit to ground and preventing the alarm from being sounded eventhough thereafter any of the alarm switches may be closed.

One not knowing the combination, that is, how far to rotate theinsulating finger counterclockwise and at which point to begin theclockwise rotation will be entirely unable to position the insulatingiinger in the manner shown in Fig. 5. Rotation of the insulating fingerin a clockwise direction continuously will cause it to pass repeatedlyunder the contact Il. This is indicated by the relative position of theparts, as illustrated best in Fig. 7. Anyone who may obtain or`improvise a key for rotating the combination clockwise Without in anymanner injuring the electrical contacts.

Should a thief endeavor to guess the combination and fail to insert theinsulating finger in such a position that it will actually insulatecontacts I7 and 2|, any subsequent opening of doors, hood or removal ofthe spare tire will immediately set off the alarm.

It will be obvious that different combinations may be obtained byextending or diminishing the arcuate extent of the curved members I8 and22. For example, viewing Fig. 3, if the insulating linger should bemoved from the position shown, that is, by the car owner, in acounterclockwise direction around to what may be called the two oclockposition on a clock face, the movement should then be changed toclockwise and the insulated finger be moved back to twelve oclockposition. This will place the insulating finger between members I'l and2I and render the system inoperative. In order to give the car owner adifferent combination the tips of members I8 and 22 may be both cut backso that the change of motion may occur only at the three oclock orthree-thirty position, otherwise one will fail to insert the insulatorbetween these curved members.

It will now be obvious that the space at which the foregoing describedreversal of motion sho'uld take place may be varied to any position backtoward the starting l2 oclock position, or by extending both the membersI8 and 22 more than 360 from the l2 oclock position more than one fullrevolution of the insulator before it reaches the critical space forreversing will be required.

The form and tension of contacts Il and 2I are such that they willalways contact each other excepting when positively separated by theinsulator finger.

Ordinarily when the car owner leaves his car in a protected condition hewill lock the linger in the position shown in Fig. 4.

In order to prevent a car thief from quickly forcing open a door anddestroying the system, the gong, relay, circuit breaker and resistancewill preferably be encased in a secure manner in a steel casing 25 andlikewise the master switch will also be well concealed within the bodyof the car where it cannot quickly be reached. The protective casing 25will preferably be provided with a few very small apertures to permitthe ready escape of sound. The details of construction of this casingare subject to great variation and need not be shown, it beingunderstood that the casing will be heavy and preferably will be screwed,riveted, or locked to the fire wall of the car so that it would takequite a few minutes to remove it. All of the wiring of the system shouldbe concealed within the car structure. Should the car owner accidentallyset off the alarm, he may quickly render the system inoperative withproper use of his key.

It should be understood that this invention is illustrated herein in itspreferred embodiment but that it is subject to considerable Variationand modification without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention as expressed in the appended claims.

Having shown and described the invention, I claim:

l. A switch comprising a pair of contacts normally maintaining a circuitthrough themselves by mutual contact and supported on a surface inspaced apart relation thereto, a rotatable shaft Cil perpendicular tosaid surface having an insulator finger iixed thereon constructed andarranged to be rotated between said surface and said contacts in onedirection of rotation, means for causing the insulator to ride up overthe outside surface of said contacts when rotated in the oppositedirection, and arcuate resilient extensions on said contacts constructedto be overridden by said insulator during said opposite rotativemovement, the extension most remote from said surface being shorter thanthe other providing a space for admitting the insulator between saidextensions.

2. A switch comprising a pair of flexible contacts normally mutuallycontacting to maintain a circuit through themselves, arcuate membersconnected with said contacts, a rotatable shaft having its axisconcentric with the arcs of said members, an insulator iinger xed onsaid shaft having a radial length greater than the radius of saidarcuate members, means connected with said contacts to cause theinsulator to override both members in one direction of rotation, therelative positions of said contacts, member and insulator being suchthat during the opposite rotation of said insulator it will passunderneath said members and contacts, the outer of said members beingshorter than the inner member to facilitate insertion of the insulatortherebetween.

3. A switch comprising a rotatable shaft having an arm extendinglaterally therefrom, a pair of contact members having adjoining contactareas for establishing an electric circuit therethrough, substantiallyparallel arcuate guide elements connected with and extending from saidmembers and curved around said shaft, the end of one element extending aslight distance circumferentially further than theend of the otherelement, said arm, contact members and guide elements being soconstructed and arranged that during continuous rotation of the arm inone direction it will rotate out of operative relation with saidelements, and means for causing the arm during opposite continuousrotation to ride over both elements, the arm and guide elements beingconstructed and arranged so that the arm maintains a resilient contactwith the guide elements while overriding them and being further arrangedso that after the arm overrides the end of one element and beforeoverriding the end of the other element it can be inserted between themby a reversal of rotation and guided into the space between the contactareas of said members by iurther reverse rotative movement.

4. A switch comprising a pair of conductors for establishing a circuit,a rotatable shaft having an arm extending therefrom for rotation betweensaidconductors, and a pair of guide means connected with said conductorsand cooperating with said arm providing a gap into which said arm may bemoved only after rotation in a predetermined direction a predeterminedamount and from which gap the arm may then be moved in the oppositedirection to a position between said conductors to operate saidV switch,the whole being arranged whereby if the arm is continuously rotated ineither direction past said gap without reversal of motion it will failto operate said switch.

5. A switch comprising a rotatable shaft having an arm extendinglaterally therefrom, a pair of members having adjoining contact areasfor establishing an electric circuit therethrough, substantiallyparallel guide elements extending from said members within the area ofthe path of said arm, one element extending in one direction a slightdistance further than the other element, said arm, members and guideelements being so constructed and arranged that during continuousrotation of the arm in one direction it will rotate out of operativerelation with said elements, and means for causing the arm duringopposite cons tinuous rotation to ride over both elements, the arm andguide elements being constructed and arranged so that the arm maintainsa resilient contact with the guide elements while overriding them andbeing further arranged so that after the arm overrides the end of oneelement and before overriding the end of the other element it can beinserted between them by a reversal of rotation and guided intol thespace between the contact areas of said members by further reverserotative movement.

6. A switch comprising a rotatable shaft having an arm extendinglaterally therefrom, a pair of members having adjoining contact areasfor establishing an electric circuit therethrough, substantiallyparallel guide elements extending from said members within the area ofthe path of said arm, one element extending in one direction a slightdistance further than the other element, said arm having anon-conducting portion insertable between said contact areas, said arm,members and guide elements being so constructed and arranged that duringcontinuous rotation of the arm in one direction it will rotate out ofoperative relation with said elements, and means for causing the armduring opposite continuous rotation to ride over both elements, the armand guide elements being constructed and arranged so that the armmaintains a resilient contact with the guide elements while overridingthem and being further arranged so that after the arm overrides the endof one element and before overriding the end of the other element it canbe inserted between them by a reversal oi rotation and guided into thespace between the contact areas of said members by further reverserotative movement.

'7. A switch comprising a rotatable shaft having an arm extendinglaterally therefrom, a pair of members having adjoining contact areasfor establishing an electric circuit therethrough, substantiallyparallel guide elements extending from said members within the area ofthe path of said arm, one element extending in one direction a slightdistance further than the other element, said arm having anon-conducting portion insertable between said contact areas, saidcontact areas being normally resiliently ln contact when not separatedbygsaid arm, said arm, members and guide elements being so constructedand arranged that during continuous rotation of the arm in one directionit will rotate out of operative relation with said elements, and meansfor causing the arm during opposite continuous rotation to ride overboth elements, the arm and guide elements being constructed and arrangedso that the arm maintains a resilient contact with theY guide elementswhile overriding them and being further arranged so that after the armoverrides the end of one element and before overriding the end of theother element it can be inserted between them by a reversal of rotationand guided into the space between the contact areas of said members byfurther reverse rotative movement.

JAMES M. GLEASON.

